Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
I have a potentially silly question, and obviously naive - but why so many drawn guns? Fun music videos aside, what was the background here? Were they coming in on a Massive gang fortress? Or are all the stereotypes of American police forces true and they just come guns a-blazing all the time? I mean, that wasn't even police officers with hand guns, they have army-like guys with massive automatic rifles, and they seem to keep them drawn and hair triggered throughout the search? :O

(on aside, I do enjoy watching British crime procedural shows as contrast, where seemingly nobody has guns and they have to call in a special unit if they actually need somebody with a handgun)

loading story #47439570
loading story #47439804
loading story #47439677
loading story #47440429
loading story #47439811
loading story #47440609
loading story #47440062
loading story #47441481
loading story #47440333
When you break into someone's home you want to be ready for people with guns shooting at you.

Politely giving them a few seconds of free shooting before you draw your guns is not a great survival strategy.

loading story #47440250
loading story #47440060
loading story #47440154
They tell us over and over again that we should have no expectation of privacy or not being filmed in public. Well, IMO they should not have any expectation of privacy or not being filmed when on private property and conducting the work _that we pay for_. They work for us.
loading story #47441716
loading story #47441687
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oponIfu5L3Y

This is the video in question, police again falling trap to the Streisand effect.

loading story #47438499
loading story #47438933
loading story #47437856
loading story #47438631
loading story #47437914
loading story #47439166
> In one of the music videos, “Will You Help Me Repair My Door,” surveillance footage shows officers swinging open a gate, kicking down a door, and roaming armed around a living room and a kitchen.

>The other, “Lemon Pound Cake,” shows one of the officers, gun in hand, pausing briefly in Mr. Foreman’s kitchen by a cake inside a glass cloche. “It made the sheriff want to put down his gun and cut him a slice,” Mr. Foreman sings in the song.

The man has a sense of humor.

loading story #47441603
It gives me immeasurable delight seeing afroman at the top of HN.

Love me some freedom, sweet soulful music, and pie in the face of bad cops.

Dang/Tom, please don't downrank this. America needs this win.

loading story #47439421
loading story #47439653
loading story #47439206
loading story #47443204
Pretty funny, worth seeing at least once to be able to reference it at appropriate times.

Having had my house raided, I love this. Police incompetence should be exposed at all opportunities with the hope that it makes some small amount of difference to future competence.

loading story #47438131
"Mr. Foreman was not at home during the 2002 police raid, but a security camera system and his wife, using her cellphone, recorded the “faces and bodies” of the officers while they were on the property, according to the lawsuit"

"2002" New York Times, everyone.

Props to afroman for his perfect demeanor/attitude during all this.

loading story #47439033
I highly recommend people watch video from the trial--specifically the officer testimonies. It's absurd this lawsuit was even fit for trial.
Going on the stand and stating that you "don't know" whether the allegedly defamatory statements you are suing over are true or not is a... bold legal strategy.
loading story #47438876
loading story #47439184
loading story #47439966
Those cops embarrassed themselves. Especially that one lady that was faux crying. Shameful behavior from the largest gang in the US.
loading story #47438832
loading story #47439154
loading story #47438780
Serious question: how come the police have not paid for the damage they caused?
loading story #47439867
loading story #47440595
loading story #47439560
loading story #47439546
loading story #47441025
> "On March 14, 2023, seven Adams County police officers sued Foreman, alleging that his use of the video of the raid invaded their privacy."

THEIR privacy?!?!? Their privacy ... in his home? This is the most ridiculous claim I have ever heard.

loading story #47439726
loading story #47439795
loading story #47440232
Interestingly enough this is not the first time cops have invaded a famous rapper's house and the rapper proceeded to make a music video out of the footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nfVWiXY3WY

Neighbors by J. Cole

I was gonnna click the link, but then I got high.
loading story #47439123
Is the NY Post some kind of National Enquirer analogue? This article reads like it was written by a grade school child trying to emulate the voice of an villainous news reporter.
loading story #47441062
loading story #47439840
loading story #47439488
They tell us over and over again that we should have no expectation of privacy or not being filmed in public. Well, IMO they should not have any expectation of privacy or not being filmed when on private property.
I don't understand how they found nothing in the raid, wouldn't they normally bring drugs with them to plant? If they forgot those that's a whole new level of police incompetence.
loading story #47441750
loading story #47440165
loading story #47440713
loading story #47439729
loading story #47442396
I haven’t found any information about what cause the police had, why a warrant was issued, etc.

I’m not suggesting suspicion has merit, but given all the idiocy I’m wondering what other forms of chicanery may have taken place to get a warrant.

loading story #47439158
I’ve had “lemon pound cake” stuck in my head all morning thanks to this
loading story #47438410
loading story #47438538
Gotta say I love Afroman's choice of courtroom atire.
loading story #47438910
Damn, that case took a long time to resolve. You know what they say about justice delayed...
loading story #47442741
Never thuoght i'd see Afroman at the top of the Hackernews articles haha
Okay at first I was like this music is not my style, but the humor was so good.
Same. It was such low quality video and audio, but I stayed for the same reason you continue listening to a comedians story
{"deleted":true,"id":47441177,"parent":47438001,"time":1773934279,"type":"comment"}
loading story #47442404
One of my favorite parts is when Afroman is being cross examined about why he brought the media and his lawyer to retrieve his money.

He says, well that was for my protection because they came to my house with AR-15's and turned off the cameras. "I didn't want to get beat up or Epstein'd".

And the lawyer is trying to make that out to be unreasonable, that a black man in the US shouldn't be scared of the police. Afroman just continues to assert that of course he was scared.

Is there anyone who isn't super rich who feels safe in america anymore?

Is it the same in other countries, can cops just raid you for no reason, or abduct people (ICE) and that's not the biggest story in the country?

loading story #47441061
How come so many cctv’s inside his house?
loading story #47440055
loading story #47440612
Heh.

> their constitutional privacy

Isn't that something that people are always pointing out "is not guaranteed by the Constitution"?

Defamation is the most boring version of this case. Barring dishonest editing, of course it's fine.

There are hypothetical versions of this that get more interesting. Ohio is a one-party consent state. It's not clear what happens in a two-party consent state. Law enforcement has no expectation of privacy in public spaces. Private is "it depends," think cases where low enforcement is discussing something with one party in a domestic dispute. If he had used bodycam footage, then you get into interesting copyright laws. Is it public domain, and if not, is it sufficiently transformative to qualify as fair use (think April 29, 1992 by Sublime).

Those cops are the epitome of the term “cry bully”.
That lemon pound cake did look tempting though.
Y'know, officers, if you'd shown up to his house after the raid and apologized and offered to buy the guy a new door of his choosing and the installation for it, we're probably not having this conversation.
loading story #47438800
loading story #47439717
cowsay "lemon pound cake"
This was also on youtube - Afroman made his points very clearly. That was an easy case.

Makes you wonder why taxpayers have to pay for incompetent cops all the time. I understand that some proection is needed, but the whole system is really defunct if such cases even (have to) come to court.

I know things are bad in the USA right now, but news like these show that you still have your basic rights. This kind of song would not fly in any other country on Earth. No other country has Freedom of Speech laws strong enough to defend against insulting the police. There have been some people abusing their freedom in recent times cough Kanye cough, but for every loud nazi there are ten more excellent people whose right to speak should not be infringed!
loading story #47439951
loading story #47440191
loading story #47440137
loading story #47438968
loading story #47439749
The judge really loved the cops for some reason. So embarrassing for him.
loading story #47438929
As someone who has never seen that video before, could I respectfully say:

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Thank you, Ohio cops and lawyers, for bringing this to our attention.

loading story #47438698
loading story #47437992
One of the more interesting parts of the whole ordeal was officers getting on the witness stand and declaring that the lyrics that insinuated he had had sex with their wife were deeply traumatizing.

People keep throwing around 'cuck' as an insult, but if trained officers of the law familiar with application of deadly force when necessary can be severely traumatized by the notion of another man sleeping with their wife... Maybe the cucks have been the brave ones all along?

loading story #47440126
was this on the regular media? I've been bombarded by this case on tiktok for the last 5 days. and i don't follow police, law, celebrity, or rap.
loading story #47440100
gotta love some Streisand effect in the morning...
As fellow Ohioan Chrissie Hine and The Pretenders said, "Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio."

Yeah, it was from "My City Was Gone," which isn't a pleasant song about the state, but pfft, it works here.

loading story #47439210
I would argue that using the footage ought to be legal; they are in his home.

Posting their names is questionable; as officers they are public servants, but naming them is perhaps invasion of privacy?

Lying however would be slander and illegal, in my humble opinion. Not worth 4 million in damages, but at least a cease and desist?

loading story #47440456
loading story #47443281
loading story #47442340
this matches my experience exactly
loading story #47441340
Everyone has an agenda, even ycombinator and the bots
The US is possibly the only place in the world where one can get away with things like this.
loading story #47439020
loading story #47439122
loading story #47439004
loading story #47439402
This is the single funniest thing to happen in at least a decade.
loading story #47441053